This is quite a mystery. An ancient (probably from the mid-1700’s) ship’s remains found buried 20 to 30 feet below street level at WTC site – probably undisturbed for more than two centuries. Build date is uncertain and the ship design is unfamiliar. A large team of archaeologists is working on the remains at Maryland to solve this puzzle.

On July 12 the remains of an 18th century ship were found buried 20 feet below street level at the site of the World Trade Center in New York City. The question is how did they get there?

Nobody knows for sure — yet. And even though there are timbers from the front half of the ship, nobody can identify what kind of ship it is because, among other mysteries, it’s not a design we’ve seen before. (more…)

Still controversial, but definitely interesting and thought provoking: Do the carvings on the 1,500 years old “Pictish Stones” found in Scotland, present “written words” of an ancient language, rather than being “just pictures”? Professor Rob Lee from Exeter University thinks so, while French linguist Arnaud Fournet does not agree.

It’s been more than 18 years since German engineer Rudolph Gantenbrink discovered the “secret door” in the southern shaft of the so-called “Queen’s Chamber“, using his remote controlled robot named “Upuaut” (Meaning “The Opener” in Ancient Egyptian.) It took Supreme Council of Antiquities ten years to examine what lied behind that door. During this long period, nobody was allowed to make researches in Great Pyramid (including Gantenbrink) which added a lot to the mystery cloud surrounding the Queen’s Chamber.

Like this:

Almost every week or so we hear sensational discoveries from the world of archaeology. This time, teams from Manchester and York universities claimed to have discovered a house which is 10,500 years old – the oldest house found so far in Britain.

Teotihuacan is one of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico. Apart from the worldwide famous Sun and Moon Pyramids and the well planned citadel, Teotihuacan had a great influence throughout Mesoamerica for centuries. The most important deity of the city was “The Feathered Serpent“, who was also worshipped by the Mayans as “Kukulcan” and by the Aztecs as “Quetzalcoatl” (both meaning “feathered” or “plumed serpent” in respective native languages.) This week, archaeologists discovered a long tunnel that lead to a network of underground galleries, beneath Temple of Quetzalcoatl of this 2,200 year-old (and maybe much older) city.

Some very disturbing things have been happening in Bulgarian archaeology scene lately. The recent so-called “St. John’s relics discovery” caused an ugly war of words between a minister (famous for his extreme nationalist views) and a top archaeologist who has been often criticized by his colleagues for seeking to achieve media sensationalism with his public appearances. Actually, it seems like an “undeclared war” between two groups of academicians in Bulgaria: One, is apparently trying hard to underline the “religious significance” of the country’s past and pushing it hard in order to boost a kind of “faith tourism” towards Bulgaria. The second group seems upset about the quick announcements which stated that the “remains of John the Baptist were discovered”, without testing and further examining the evidence. Now the “warriors” of each group are exchanging insults (including f-word) in front of the public.

A brilliant archaeologist from Tel Aviv University, Prof. Yuval Goren, has developed a new tool which let archaeologists examine the millenia old clay tablets with cuneiform inscriptions and find out amazing details like “who wrote it”. Goren’s device uses X-ray to reveal hidden information about a tablet’s composition without damaging the precious ancient find itself.

Unfortunately, when the Mesopotamian kings exchanged letters, written in cuneiform on small tablets made out of clay, their post offices didn’t record the sender’s return address. Yet, a more thorough look at the composition of the clay tablets can help today’s archaeologists to determine the origins of this correspondence — which can reveal a great deal about ancient rulers and civilizations. It can offer information about the ancient trade networks, warfare, literature and political ties in the region.

Luckily, the medium the ancient rulers chose to correspond in, clay tablets, is composed of fine-grained materials, often less than two micrometres in size, and the exact composition differs depending on the clay’s geographical origin. Examining chemical composition of the artefacts, rather than the texts, can tell archaeologists more about where the writings were created (or at least, where the clay was sourced) and which other tablets with similar composition they relate to.